An Evaluation of Teacher Opinions Regarding Approaches and Gender Differences in Mathematics Calculations

Abstract

The first purpose of this research was to obtain the opinions of elementary school teachers regarding approaches in mathematics calculations, while the second purpose, which involved research conducted among teachers, was to find out if there is any difference between the performances of male and female students in mathematics calculations. The sample consisted of 505 teachers from 98 primary schools in Istanbul. A questionnaire was used to gather the data. According to half of the teachers, operation speed is not very important. However the other half considered it very important. Also most of the teachers indicated that reaching the correct results is very important. A majority of the teachers allow students to use their fingers during calculation and most of the teachers do not permit the use of calculators for problem solving. According to the majority of the teachers there are differences between male and female students regarding the speed of understanding a new topic, being careful and fast in the operations, reaching the correct result and in using their fingers for calculation. The majority of the teachers pointed out that male students are more successful than female students in solving the problems mentally. Approximately half of the teachers reported no difference between males and females regarding operation speed while 6 % pointed out that female students are faster and the rest said that male students exceed females in speed.